For our last of five intra-Asian flights during our honeymoon to Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, we flew from Seoul back to Tokyo — our start and end point of the trip. And it was time to try the last of five Asian budget airlines. Enter: Peach Aviation.
Here’s everything you need to know about flying with Peach Aviation.
Booking Your Peach Aviation Tickets
Peach Aviation is a Japanese airline based at Kansai Airport in Osaka. While you should be able to book flights with them through most booking platforms, we booked our tickets through the CapitalOne booking portal, knowing that it would earn us 10x points with our purchase.
Our flight was in September, but we’d made our booking way back in January, and it cost about $64 per person direct from Seoul (Incheon) to Tokyo-Haneda. I didn’t notice any details about what bags were included or not included with my ticket at that point — from what I remembered during my few budget flights around Southeast Asia back in 2018, I remembered carry-on bags being included, so I wasn’t too worried about just figuring it out when the time came.
Looking at it again now, it seems that there are different fare classes available at the time of booking, so I guess we just picked the minimum class of service. Learn more about the fare classes and what’s included.
Peach Aviation Check-in Logistics
So, at this point, we had flown with four budget airlines in Asia. Matt and I travel only with carry-on backpacks (no checked bags), and three of the four airlines had allowed us to board with our carry-on bags, without paying anything extra.
But as I researched the day before our flight with Peach Aviation, I realized there was no way we were going to “get away” with that again. Everything I read about Peach Aviation was that they were extremely strict about carry-on bag weight and they would 100% weigh your items to make sure you weren’t over the limit.
When this happened to us in Osaka when we flew with VietJet Air, not only did they weigh our bags and make us pay an extra $50 USD per bag… we had to pay it in cash! And since we were leaving Japan, we didn’t have any cash left because we’d strategically used it all up. To avoid that same thing happening to us again as we left South Korea, we decided to go ahead and pay to check our carry-on bags through the Peach Aviation website before our flight. It cost about $40 USD.
The day of the flight, we arrived at the Seoul airport a few hours in advance, knowing we’d have to go to the desk to check our bag and fully check-in. We were flying out at 10:50 p.m. and landing at Haneda airport in Tokyo at 12:55 a.m. (This was a slightly insane yet intentional choice on our part, as we would be flying out of Haneda at 8 a.m. that morning to head back to Europe, so we just chilled in the airport all night in one of the lounges that our CapitalOne card gave us access to.)
Interestingly, when we got to the Peach Aviation check-in counter, it wasn’t even open yet, but other passengers were already lined up. When check-in opened, we paid attention to how the check-in desk workers interacted with the passengers. We noticed that they were making everyone weigh all their bags — even small backpacks. This made us feel like it was the right choice to pay to check our bags in advance to avoid higher prices on the day-of.
When it was finally our turn to check in, we dropped our bags with no problem. And our check-in agent, though we’d seen him make other people weigh their small backpacks, didn’t even ask us to do ours. Also, compared to the annoying situations we had with some of the South Korean airlines due to the fact that our middle names weren’t on our tickets, the Peach Aviation worker just stamped our boarding pass with something like “Docs OK” and sent us on our way.
Security at Incheon Airport
Luckily we weren’t really in a hurry, but security at Incheon Airport was probably one of the worst that we experienced on this trip. Despite the fact that it was getting to be fairly late at night, the lines were extremely long. We stood in a line for about five minutes on one side of the entrance before someone told us the other side was shorter, so we walked over there and then probably waited another 10-15 minutes.
Unfortunately, long wait times at Incheon seems to kind of be a trend: Incheon Airport wait times
But, in case you didn’t know, you can take food through security. I was carrying around a big plastic bag full of gluten-free snacks for most of the trip, and not only did security not care, but gate agents never did, either.
Peach Aviation Experience
Honestly, the flight was so short and it was so late at night (after a long travel day) that I hardly even remember anything about it, lol.
But I consider that a win. 🤷♀️
Peach Aviation Value
While my American self thinks that about $100 USD for an international flight + (checked) carry-on bag isn’t bad, the fact that I got the same from other airlines for much cheaper makes me realize it didn’t have to be that way.
For example, we flew with Jeju Air from Taipei to Seoul earlier in the trip, and it only cost $22 — and that included a 12kg carry-on bag on board, AND a 15kg checked bag!
So I probably wouldn’t choose Peach Aviation (or VietJet Air, for that matter) again just because they seem to make you pay more for the same things other airlines provide for free.
Key Takeaway: Peach Aviation
Peach Aviation baggage allowance: 7 kg per person (Minimum fare); anything above must be checked
Anyway, those are my thoughts about my experience with Peach Aviation! Of course, your experience may vary and I can’t promise you’ll have a decent experience like we did.
Have you ever flown with Peach Aviation, or are you thinking about it? Let me know in the comments.
-Cathy
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